No Signal Phoenix

[ckudrna]

I bought a Directv system from bestbuy, and have been playing with the thing for over 6 hours now, and i get no signal at all, 0% for all three sats.

It is a triple LNB with Philips boxes (DSX-5500).

It has the built in 4 switch for the coax cable out to the boxes on the head of the dish.

It is in plain view on the second story of an apartment with nothing interfeering with it.

I was given the Azimuth of 148.3 and tilt of 49.5.

I have moved it tiny bits in every direction and still no signal at all.

I have a feeling something is not connected correctly. I just have the coax cable (the fancy one they said i needed at bestbuy) from the built in switch on the satelite to the reciever and plugged into the sat in. No signal, nothing.

Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks

(I have it set for the three satellite, and when i try to "Auto Configure" it fails on step 3 of 19).

Every once and awhile it says "Wrong Satellite"??

 

[Wobbling]

First, make sure that the foot that it is mounted on is level. Using a compass and standing near no metal, find 148.3º. Walk around the foot until you are facing 148º and the dish in a straight line from you to 148º. Line the center of the back mounting part of the dish up to 148º, tighten the bolts, and set your elevation. It is easiest to have someone at the TV yelling when you get a signal if you don't have a meter. You could also start 30º or so to the right or left and slowly move it if you have someone inside watching the signal inside.

 

[ckudrna]

Thanks for the reply.

We have moved the dish back and forth in every direction slowly for hours, and have never had anything other than 0 for signal.

Is my connections from the dish to the box correct? Do i need to use one of the ports on the dish in order for the whole modulus to work? I have tried two different recievers.

My neighbor has this and it works fine, angle is the same, everything. I have absolutly no obstructions.

How quickly will the signal strength update on the reciever from when i move it? What is the variance of acceptability? Shouldnt it pick up something even if it is a few degrees off?

Thanks

 

[Wobbling]

The signal can take up to 3-4 seconds to update, especially on the type of dish you are using, and, on some receivers it will actually freeze if left at 0 signal strength for too long, and you will have to switch between transponders to see any change.


Running a line straight from the LNB to the reciever should work fine in your case, you might want to make sure that the white foam in the wire is flush with the opening inside the connector, because signal travels down the foam stuff while voltage travels down the copper core, but my guess would be alignment troubles.

I think that it can be somewhere around a max of 4º off and you can get 5-15 signal strength.

Also, make sure you stick to transponders 1 & 2, I almost took a bat to a dish one day after trying to align it for a little under 2 hours to find that I had left it on a transponder that was always 0.

 

[ckudrna]

I had a brief moment when C transpond 10 lit up to 52%

Went dead shortly after, A and B still had nothing

 

[mikew]

is this your first install? If it is, I'd suggest getting a professional install. A rookie/novice can get a single lnb configured with some difficulty..a novice/newbie intermediate could do a dish 500, but a triple lnb with switches does require a bit of previous knowledge. Furthermore, if you're new to DirecTV or have recently moved, there are programs to get these installs done for free.

 

[walkerjs]

Wow, I feel really good about installing my own dish then. I have a triple LNB and I managed to get it pointed with signal on all of them, and that was with a potential signal disrupting tree. The B/C was a real pain though; it wasn't until I moved the dish/mount assembly to a different part of the balcony that I was able to get those locked up, and that was after switching to transponder 10, plus making sure the tilt was correct.

I did a LOT of research though...with much of it saying "if it's your first one, "you can't do this", plus the help of a compass and aviation chart giving me the magnetic/true deviation.

 

[Mike Greer]

because signal travels down the foam stuff while voltage travels down the copper core

Sorry to point this out but the signal doesn't travel down the 'foam stuff'. The foam is a dielectric that is part of what makes up the electrical characteristics of the cable - like impedance etc.

As far the alighnmet of the Dish goes is there anything above the dish? It is a little misleading when you look at the dish and LNB's. The LNB's are not pointing at the satellite. The signal comes from a higher angle and bounces off the dish into the LNB. If you have an overhang above you it could be blocking the satellite even though it doesn't look like it is.

Good luck!

 

[ckudrna]

Got it working shortly after posting here.

For whatever reason the Azimuth that was told to me by DirecTV was WAY WAY WAY off by about 25 degrees. I was told around 162-159.3 Aazimuth, turns out it was over 186. Instead of south south east, i was south south west. My neightbor (apartment complex) has a single LNB, and his is pointed at roughly 160.

I have average 98% average signal strength for all three now.

Works great. If i know i should have been being a little more west with my alignment it would have taken 20 minutes...........

 

[Neutron]

Congrats on getting it done yourself!! When we move I will align our dish at the new place. I've learned so much from here and watching the installer to know where to point it.

 

[walkerjs]

Just as a data point, prior to my appointment with an installer who ultimately told me he was going to have to charge me $100 to build a bucket mount, I had checked out all of the other dishes in my complex to try to get as close to an idea of where the azimuth was as I could along with using every internet resource I could get for my area. My estimation of where to point the dish after all that research proved to be far more accurate than what the installer guy said would be the direction it would need to be pointed, and he had one of those satellite finder things, or at least some kind of sextant. He said they would be above a tree that was many degrees away from the tree that the dish ended up pointed above to get a good (or more accurately, ANY) signal.

His estimation would have required my mount to be located on a rather inconvenient location on the deck. My estimation ended up being pretty much exactly where I figured it would end up being after doing all that research and finally just pointing the dish where I initially thought the birds were. It really worked out quite well; I built my own bucket mount, pointed the dish, and didn't get charged $100 or possibly more.

Glad to hear that yours turned out similarly! I will never go back to cable.

 

[nytevizion]

cheap sat meter

I purchased a cheap sat finder (meter) off of Ebay for 10 bucks. When I recently moved and re aligned my dish it took me 10 seconds to roughly find the signal, then it was a matter of fine tuning.. Was up and watching in about 15 minutes...I also had the same problem when I first purched the system that I was way too far east, everyone I talked to had said to line up the arm to the degree mark, and that is way wrong on a tripple LNB system. :shocked

 

[ckudrna]

The three LNB does have a much different elevation and azimuth than the old dual LNB.

At my home in Chicago (where I am right now) the three LNB dish looks like it is falling off the side of the house it is so crooked to the side, down at my place in Arizona the tilt is about 90, and up at my place in Montana the dsh looks like it is pointing into the ground. Once i get the FTA orders placed i think i may just have to buy a sat meter to help find my true south and get that all set.